Westwood Works Musical Society

INDEX

The WWMS Show was always one of the highlights of the year. Usually staged
over one week at the Embassy Theatre in Peterborough, the shows were enjoyed
by not only Baker Perkins employees, but hundreds of other people from the surrounding
area.

The Shows: (Note: photographs shown with an asterisk depict
Company shots)

1930 - 1935

1934: Miss Hook of Holland

1936 - 1959

1936: Belle Of New York

1946: Sunshine Girl

1946: Sunshine Girl

1948: Rose Marie

1948: Rose Marie

1949: The Arcadians

1950 - Rio Rita

1951: The Quaker Girl

1952: Show Boat

1953: New Musical Director

1953: Annie Get Your Gun

1954: The Lilac Domino

1955: Oklahoma!

1956: Zip Goes A Million

1957: Call Me Madam

1958: Love From Judy

1958: Love From Judy*

1959: Me & My Girl

1960 - 1979

1960: South Pacific*

1961: The Pyjama Game*

1962: Brigadoon*

1963: The Music Man*

1964: The King & I

1965: The Desert Rose

1966: Rose Marie

1967: Kismet

1968: Half a Sixpence*

1969: Kiss Me Kate

1970: Chu Chin Chow

1971: Hello Dolly

1972: Guys & Dolls

1973: Annie Get Your Gun

1974: Lilac Time

1975: Hit The Deck

1976: The Desert Song

1976: The King & I

1977: Finian's Rainbow

1978: Gigi*

1979: Camelot

1979: Camelot dancers

1980 onwards

1980: Oklahoma!

1981: Kiss Me Kate

1982: Cabaret*

1983: Bells Are Ringing

1984: Mack & Mabel*

1985: Chicago*

1986: Hello Dolly*

1987: Sugar*

1988: The Best Little
Whorehouse in Texas*

1989: Annie*

1990: The Pirates of Penzance*

1991: South Pacific*

History of the Westwood Works Musical Society

In 1930, a then very small society put on a production called Money in the
Rollerdrome in Peterborough. The following year they put on three shows - Fanny
and the Servant Problem, Cupid and the Ogre and The Strange Adventures of Mrs
Brown. This was followed in 1932 by Philida, or Love on the Prairie.

With the influx of people from Willesden to Peterborough in 1933 came members
of the Willesden Musical Society who, until then, had concentrated mainly on
Gilbert and Sullivan productions. The two societies soon got together and, in
1934, put on their first production, Miss Hook of Holland. This was the first
big show of the society and was staged in the old Empire Theatre, or The Little
Theatre as it was known. The following year there was another big production
- The Arcadians.

The society went from strength to strength and by 1938 was ready to move into
the newly built Embassy Theatre, being the first amateur society to use the
1,500 seat theatre. The show was Rainbow's End. The new venue was ideal for
staging the big, colourful musicals for which the society was becoming well
known.

The start of the war in 1939 meant that the production of Jill Darling was
the last the society would put on until 1946. It then had to start from scratch
and staged a modest production of Sunshine Girl in the St. Paul's Hall. For
the next two years it moved to the Elwes Hall with Hit the Deck followed by
Rose Marie. However, by 1949 the society was back in the big time with a second
production of The Arcadians, again at the Embassy.

Since then the society produced a show every year up to and after 1992 when
manufacturing ceased at Westwood Works. It was not unusual for the performances
to attract a total weekly audience of as many as 10,000.

"Sadly, the society’s 42 years at the Embassy, which later became known as The ABC Theatre, came to an end in 1980 with a performance of Oklahoma staged just months before the theatre finally closed its doors.

The amateur performers put on their first ever production, Kiss Me Kate, at the city’s Key Theatre in 1981 and have been at the venue ever since.

It was during the 1980s that Works was dropped from the society’s name and after a brief time as the Westwood Baker Perkins Musical Society, members settled on being called the Westwood Musical Society.

In the last few years, Westwood Musical Society has staged Crazy For You, Anything Goes, Copacabana, the musical written by Barry Manilow, Thoroughly Modern Millie, My Fair Lady and Calamity Jane. There has also been Carousel, Oklahoma and The Will Rogers Follies.

There have been a number of larger-than-life characters who have graced the stage as members of the society, including Graham Aubrey, Larry Roberts, Colin Wise, Clive and Sue Reed, Ruth Hunt and of course Donna Steele, who joined the society in 1989 to play the lead in Annie".

(Extract from an article from the Peterborough Evening Telegraph dated 23rd March 2010)

Can you help to fill in any missing dates? If so, please see this
page for instructions on how to contact us and we'll update the captions.

The Matt Walton Collection

2005 marks the 75th Anniversary of the Westwood
Works Musical Society and it is perhaps appropriate to recall a husband
and wife partnership that played an important part in helping to develop
the Society to the high levels of performance that it achieved in later
years.

We must thank Mrs Sonja Pollard for the loan of the following
collection of photographs of the Westwood Works Musical Society that belonged
to her father, Matt Walton, a well-known and much respected producer of
shows for the Society in the post-war years. Matt's involvement in musical
shows went back a long way before that.

Matt met his future wife, Enid, in Newcastle - at the Clarion Cycling Club.
- not long after the end of WW1. Enid had been in a choir and had some acting
training as a child. They both performed in a choir at various venues around
Newcastle and district and took part in several musical shows on the stage.
This section of the Clarion movement became very strong and broke away to form
the Peoples Theatre (which is still in existence).

They married in 1929 and Matt found work in Rugby where they became involved
in the Percival Guild House with Matt taking leading parts in plays by Shakespeare
and George Bernard Shaw. Enid was accepted into the Rugby Choral Society and
sang in many oratorios. In 1933 Matt started work at Baker Perkins and they
moved into Willesden Avenue at the same time as the Joseph Baker & Sons
employees moved up from Willesden (See also Willesden
to Peterborough, Getting
to Work and Housing).

Both Matt and Enid were soon taking an active part in the Westwood Works Musical
Society and both appeared in "Miss Hook of Holland" in 1934. Matt was
a Committee Member for the Society's first production of "The Arcadians" in
1935 and again in 1936, when he also took a leading part in "The Belle of New
York" at the Theatre Royal. However, Enid was involved in her own personal production
as it was the year that their daughter Sonja was born and she too was to become
an active member of the WWMS in later years, appearing in many of the shows.
By 1938 and "Rainbow Inn", Matt had become Assistant Producer and he and the
Society trod the boards of the professional stage at the new Embassy Theatre.
"Jill Darling" followed in 1939, also at the Embassy.

By the beginning of WW2 they had moved into Grimshaw Road and Matt channelled
his energies into war work, working a 12 hour day and sometimes nights. (See
also Westwood
Works at War). He did find time and energy, however, to run a concert party
that performed at the many military camps around Peterborough and also for two
years put on Sunday night concerts for the local troops at the Peterborough
Town Hall. At this time Enid was on duty with the WVS, producing meals at their
canteen in Long Causeway. As accommodation was scarce during the war, the Walton
household hosted many artistes who were appearing at the Embassy Theatre.

The end of hostilities found Matt assisting
the pupils of the "Jean Hodson" School of Dancing to stage a Christmas
Pantomime with his "Eight o'Clock Revue Company" - made up largely of
members of the Westwood Works Musical Society. It is known that he directed
at least three productions - "Cinderella" in 1945; "Babes in the Wood" in
1946 and "Dick Whittington and his Cat" in 1947.

Matt was largely responsible for re-starting the society after the war, the
first post-war WWMS production being "Sunshine Girl" in 1946 in St. Paul's
Hall - a show which recieved great praise from a local reviewer: "It
really was a rattling good show. Four evening performances and one matinee
at St Paul’s Church Hall, put over with a sure touch for which the Company
is entitled to all the applause they drew. These affairs are so much
more fun when the performers are your own workmates and friends, for
even if you are only one of the audience who has not done a single
thing towards it, somehow or other you feel you are getting some of
the credit. Conversely, can anything be more painful than to witness
your amateur friends perpetrating a flop?

Besides the inescapable hard work of rehearsing to such a standard of
excellence as the Company displayed, the girls had toiled with the ingenuity
of their minds and fingers to make many of the costumes – though nobody would
have known it without being told. They proved that austerity and utility
are not necessarily ugly by contriving the fresh bright colour schemes appropriate
to musical comedy out of old overalls, lace curtains and so on.

There were twelve principal parts – a beauty chorus of twenty-two
and nine gentlemen of the chorus besides the Director of Music, two Producers
and the Lady who arranged the Dances, but we decline to mention individuals
by name, by way of indicating our sweeping appreciation of them all.

The Programme provided a synopsis of the story of the play which is, of
course, absolute bilge. But necessary as that sort of explanation may
be on some programmes it was superfluous in this case because, amongst their
other accomplishments, the Company had the talent to make the story intelligible.

It takes a lot of other people to make a show like this you know; Wardrobe
Mistress, Stage Manager, Prompter, a Forked Lightning Expert, Ticket Committee,
Stewards, Programme Sellers and a Publicity Manager. There now, despite
our decision not to mention names, we’ll be hanged if we don’t
mention the Publicity Manager – the poor devils get little enough notice
taken of them. It was J T Fletcher."

This marked the start of Matt's great success as a producer for the Society.
Shows such as "Hit the Deck" (1947), "Rose Marie" (1948), "The Arcadians" (1949)
- one of the many in which Sonja Walton appeared in the chorus - "Rio Rita"
(1950), and "The Quaker Girl"(1951) were performed during this period with
Enid playing a principal part in most of these shows. By this time the shows
were again staged at the Embassy Theatre. The last production for the WWMS
with which Matt was involved was "Show Boat" in 1952 as he was transferred
back up north as machine shop superintendent at the newly opened Baker Perkins
factory at Bedewell, Hebburn-on-Tyne, where he stayed for 17 years.

He was rather frustrated at first at not being able to pursue his stage activities
but in the later years did produce several shows for a small company, "The Happy
Go Lucky" at the South Shields Pavilion. Enid became a member of the Jarrow
Operatic and spent 13 years as a member of the Newcastle Ladies Choir, taking
part in several tours abroad and appearances at the Welsh Eisteddfod and on
radio and Television.

Matt retired and moved back to Peterborough in early 1969. After a very full
and happy retirement surrounded by his family, Matt died in 1989.

1935: The Arcadians

1936: The Belle of New York

1937: Geisha Girl

1938: Rainbow Inn

1939: Jill Darling

1946: Sunshine Girl

1947: Hit the Deck

1948: Rose Marie

1949: The Arcadians

1950: Rio Rita

1951: Quaker Girl

1952: Show Boat

1945: Matt in Drag for a VE Day Party

1947: The Full Company of the 8 o'clock Revue

1979: Matt's 50th Wedding Anniversary Party at Alma Road Clubhouse

Mystery Picture

It is not known whether this photograph has any direct connection with the Westwood Works Musical Society but it was taken outside the main offices and the shield held by the lady in the front row was presented by J.E. Pointon, a director of the company It is thought that the fashions point to the mid 1930s and the shield is inscribed - "Peterborough Musical Competition Festival - Presented by Mr.John E. Pointon".

We understand from Felicity Kamminga, the Secretary of the Peterborough Competitive Music Festival, that the Trophy is still well known (as the Pointon Challenge Shield) and is awarded to Ladies' Choirs. The Music Festival was founded in 1925 and is still going strong. It is possible that the ladies pictured are members of a Baker Perkins choir and some might have been members of the Westwood Works Musical Society. We have found mention of a Baker Perkins Male Voice Choir but so far, details of a female choir has not yet surfaced.

If there is anyone out there who is able to add anything to this or knew someone who sang in one of these choirs, we would be very pleased to hear from you.

We understand that the Trophy currently languishes in Felicity's garage attic as it was not awarded this year (2011).

Backstage work by the Baker Perkins Apprentices

As has been described in BPHS's "Virtual Book" publication - "Working
in the Wider Community", the expertise of the Baker Perkins Apprentice School was
occasionally used to solve problems associated with the staging of Westwood
Works Musical Society shows. The WWMS Programme for their 1987 performance
of "Sugar" included in its "Chairman's Notes - "An innovation worthy
of special note is the revolve to assist speedy scene changes. It
has been designed and constructed by our own Stage Co-ordinator, Dave Stonebridge,
and apprentices in the Training Centre of Baker Perkins PLC. This
represents a further significant financial investment by us in stage equipment
and we are especially An grateful to the management of Baker Perkins PLC
for allowing us to call upon professional advice and to use fabrication
facilities for this special item".

Taken at the back of the Apprentice School in October,
1984, this photograph shows three fabrication apprentices with a
piece of equipment they had made for the Westwood Musical Society's
production of "Mack and Mabel" This camera dolly was able to swing
right out over the two front rows of the audience.